Public Risk Management

Our guest on the latest episode of PRIMA Podcasts is Melanie Bennett from United Educators. Melanie shares some of the major concerns associated with the current Zika virus outbreak, particularly as it relates to learning institutions. Melanie explains that because the Zika virus is transmitted by mosquitoes, it is spreading very quickly between countries and continents, and there is currently no vaccine. Fortunately, the symptoms are generally mild (red eyes, fever, joint pain and rash) and the virus only stays in the bloodstream for about a week. However, the major concern is that both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have identified a link between Zika and microcephaly, which causes very serious birth defects. Specific Concerns For Educational Institutions K-12 and higher education institutions should be particularly concerned about Zika because of their study abroad programs. The CDC has issued level-two travel alerts for countries with an outb

In this episode of PRIMA Podcasts, Angelique Dale shares some methods that may be employed by organizations in order to manage the risk of sexual abuse. Angelique indicates that changes in how organizations approach and deal with these risks have not been as radical as one would hope, despite the fact that incidents of this nature are constantly being reported by the media. Many organizations still rely solely on criminal background checks, which is problematic because only 40% of offenders actually have a criminal background. This may be attributed to the fact that very few offenders get caught.

On this episode of PRIMA's Risk Management Podcast series, Chris Grollnek provides vital information that can be used in the unlikely event of a workplace violence or an active shooter situation. Chris is an award-winning active shooter and domestic terrorism prevention expert. He advises the highest levels of government and corporate executives through his workplace violence coalition known as the Safe2Safest Strategic Alliance.

Our guest for this episode of PRIMA's Risk Management Podcast is Shannon Gunderman. Shannon is the administrative services director of Yuma County, Arizona where he is responsible for administrating the county’s property, liability, unemployment and workers' compensation programs. He also serves as the county’s enterprise risk management project manager. Shannon explains that enterprise risk management (ERM) is a completely new way of thinking about risk. ERM approaches risk as the uncertainty that affects the achievement of an entity’s goals, as well as a part of the decision-making process across an organization. Shannon emphasizes that risk doesn’t appear in silos; it can affect multiple parts of an organization. Therefore, the goal of enterprise risk management is to address and treat risk throughout the organization at all levels. In essence, with ERM, everyone in the organization is a risk manager.